Despite March being deadliest month…Public behaviour has not changed - Emergency Medicine Specialist

Despite March being deadliest month…Public behaviour has not changed – Emergency Medicine Specialist

Mar 29, 2021 News

Emergency Medicine Specialist, Dr. Zulfikar Bux

Kaieteur News – Despite March being one of the deadliest months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Guyana one year ago, public behaviour has not changed.
This is according to Emergency Medicine Specialist, Dr. Zulfikar Bux, as he referred to the situation as “alarming” in his Sunday Kaieteur News column yesterday. He stated, “Two weeks ago, I highlighted the situation in Brazil and my concerns for us in Guyana. Since then, our case numbers and death rates have surged and we are now in one of the deadliest and (most) infectious months since the pandemic started. What is more alarming is the fact that this has not changed public behaviour much.”
There are still large gatherings, improper mask-wearing and no mask-wearing at all and the case toll is also on the increase, he said.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported two more COVID-19 deaths; a 30-year-old woman and a 78-year-old man, both from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica). Notably, Region Four has the highest number of infections and a high number of COVID-19 deaths as well. With the two new deaths, Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll now stands at 227. Kaieteur News had reported a surge in deaths and new infections last week, with an average of 60 new cases per day and two deaths per day.
The MOH also reported 96 new cases yesterday via its daily dashboard update which shows Guyana’s case toll increased to 10,168.
The dashboard also shows that 13 patients are in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit, another 12 in institutional quarantine, 54 in institutional isolation and 995 in home isolation. With 995 persons currently in home isolation, Guyana may soon have over 1,000 patients in home isolation.
Additionally, a total of 8,879 persons have recovered to date with 32 new recoveries recorded yesterday.
Speaking to the surge in new infections, Dr. Bux said, “Whether this is from the Brazil variant or is from an excess in irresponsible behaviour, is yet to be determined. My concern is that it may be the former and the latter is responsible for its rapid spread.” He lamented that common sense would dictate that Guyanese should not wait to find out which of the two is responsible for the increasing case toll but should be responsible by taking heed of the preventative measures before the situation gets out of control.
The doctor noted that recently Guyana has seen more deaths of younger persons than in any other period during this pandemic. “The young adults here are getting hit harder with the disease than previously” and given what is occurring in Brazil which has a rapidly spreading variant, “we should presume that a similar situation is evolving here and start to behave responsibly by adhering to preventative measures,” he outlined.
In light of the government’s indication that there will be sufficient vaccines to cover Guyana’s population in 2021, Dr. Bux has stressed that citizens need to survive until then, and what is done during the next eight weeks will determine everyone’s fate.